In honor of Cupcake Week…

Lollychops is my hero!  She has collaborated with La Fuji Mama to celebrate Cupcakes!  In honor of the occasion, I forced myself to dig into the freezer (well whaddayaknow, they were right there up front) and pull out a carrot cupcake made from this book …

…frost it with some yummy rich cream cheese frosting, and–well, celebrate Cupcake Week! (Um, celebrate Cupcake Week late on a cloudy afternoon when the natural light is not the best.)                                                   

(Does this count as BYOB?)

Life is full.

Just in the last week, I’ve baked three cakes and two pies, attended four music rehearsals and four committee meetings, planned and executed a birthday party, and made this skirt.

I designed it and drafted the pattern–I think it’s the first time I’ve done it for anyone other than myself.   Here is a detail of the blanket stitching on the appliques.  The pink fabric is from a crib dust ruffle bought at a discount store.  (And yes, I made the gores on the cross-grain–because that was the only way they fit.)

More BYOB

This is challah from the AB5 book (sans poppy seeds, because I had none). 

(Other recent baking goodness–un-photographed–includes cornbread, banana bread, chocolate chip cookies, and bran muffins.)

Yellow Soup

I’m not officially part of the House On Hill Road yellow week, but how about this buttery cream of potato soup (homemade, of course, <sniff>)?

Relaxing February Evening

After a busy weekend and a hectic Monday, I’m glad the temperature is chilly enough for a fire.  I’m an experienced beginner knitter (many scarves) and am tackling this top in 100% cotton (raveled from a thrifted sweater:  see the balls of yarn in the header photo).

Skirt to Shirt

Before (thrifted skirt, “on sale,”  buck-fifty)…

After (not very flattering, but I love working with border prints and I like the colors)…

BYOB 2

This is what I had for dinner Saturday night and breakfast this morning and lunch today:  mmmm–the 100% whole wheat loaf from Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day.  (I’m having more in a bit with my beef stew dinner.)  Yet  as much as I love eating and making and sharing (and photographing and blogging about) this stuff, every day it becomes more evident to me that I do not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Tote Bag

I made this for nursing-student-daughter–for those hefty textbooks.  She has inherited my caffeine-dependency gene.  The fabric is from my stash, the maker long-forgotten.  What cute polka-dotted cups!

Jingle Jangle Thangle

Now it’s going through my head…”I’ve got spurs that jingle jangle jingle…”  Well, despite my (great) years in Texas, I have no spurs.

But I do have Thangles!  They’re preprinted paper pattern pieces (say that fast 5 times), and I’m using them as part of a “buck a block” project at our local quilting shop.  That’s the first block, and I get the instructions and fabric for the next block on Tuesday–for a buck.

BYOB

Thanks to Sandi for her welcome to BYOB–Bake Your Own Bread.   You can learn about it at her blog. 

These are from the master recipe in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  Does anyone know why my dough turns gray on top after a few days in the fridge?  Could it be my water?  Or the kind of salt I use?  (I use regular table salt; I read that I can use it by reducing the amount from 1 and 1/2 tablespoons to 1 tablespoon.  It’s iodized.  Does that matter?)   The gray part gets mixed into the boule and forms gray streaks–not attractive.

Wow!  I pasted this question into the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day blog and had an answer from Zoe within minutes!  She says it’s probably due to my sealing the keeping bowl too tightly so that alcohol builds up and causes the gray stuff–als0 that sprinkling flour on top of the dough helps prevent the build-up.